Tuesday, April 14, 2009
(O)(M)e(G)le
So I was wasting time not bothering with homework watching some youtube videos, when one of the videos I was watching mentioned the new social networking site, Omegle. Social networking? More like Netstalking!
Having stirred my curiosity, I decided to type omegle.com into my browser. Immediately, a screen as creepy as the menu on The Ring dvd pops up. As I read, I find out that this revolutionary website is like facebook, myspace, hi5, homeschoolersalumni, etcetera... minus any and all safety measures.
They ought to call this website pleasestalkme.com. It greets you warmly, then explains its mission statement. You can talk to any random person (who just might have just recently been released from prison on 3 counts of insert crime here, and no information is given out about either of you.
They don't discourage you, however, from revealing any personal information during the course of your conversation.
Here's how I picture the lawsuit brewing:
Pre-teen: So you're 14?
Creepy Stalker: Oh sure! High school is rad!
Pre-teen: Cool, so you like Hannah Montana and stuff?
Creepy Stalker: Yeah! Let's go see the movie together!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly what 20/20 has spent years trying to combat with their program where they pretend to be a teenaged girl and then catch criminals? So basically here's another more discrete way for creepy people to prey on kids.
You know you've designed a target for a good lawsuit when your catch phrase is "Talk to Strangers!"
The website has a button to send feedback to the founder... founder is more operatively replaced by "accomplice."
Creeeepy!!!
Having stirred my curiosity, I decided to type omegle.com into my browser. Immediately, a screen as creepy as the menu on The Ring dvd pops up. As I read, I find out that this revolutionary website is like facebook, myspace, hi5, homeschoolersalumni, etcetera... minus any and all safety measures.
They ought to call this website pleasestalkme.com. It greets you warmly, then explains its mission statement. You can talk to any random person (who just might have just recently been released from prison on 3 counts of insert crime here, and no information is given out about either of you.
They don't discourage you, however, from revealing any personal information during the course of your conversation.
Here's how I picture the lawsuit brewing:
Pre-teen: So you're 14?
Creepy Stalker: Oh sure! High school is rad!
Pre-teen: Cool, so you like Hannah Montana and stuff?
Creepy Stalker: Yeah! Let's go see the movie together!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this exactly what 20/20 has spent years trying to combat with their program where they pretend to be a teenaged girl and then catch criminals? So basically here's another more discrete way for creepy people to prey on kids.
You know you've designed a target for a good lawsuit when your catch phrase is "Talk to Strangers!"
The website has a button to send feedback to the founder... founder is more operatively replaced by "accomplice."
Creeeepy!!!
